CORRECTION 3 p.m. Feb. 12: An earlier version of this story misquoted professor Jennifer Ho. The incorrect quote has been removed. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for the erorr.
Forceful language and unsettling content will combine to make an unrelenting spectacle for viewers in Memorial Hall this Friday and Saturday.
This weekend’s presentation of playwright Young Jean Lee’s “The Shipment,” will thrust the audience into a bare-staged, racially entangled and gritty exploration of bigotry.
Racial issues pertaining to the African American experience are explored with candor and will be deliberately hammered deep into the minds of the attendees.
Lee’s unabashed use of profanity and unswerving assault on sensitive subjects might induce seat-squirming from thin-skinned audience members.
“Subtlety is not her style,” said Emil Kang, director of Carolina Performing Arts. “The language bombards like machine gun fire.”
The play, driven by language, is a composition of discussion-provoking dialogues. Now on tour in Chapel Hill, the production has invited audiences from Seattle to Germany to find elegance in its vulgarity and truth at the base of its unnerving presentation.
Reed Colver, director of Campus and Community Engagement, witnessed the play’s heralded premiere at the Kitchen Theater in Manhattan and said she is unsure how Chapel Hill’s viewers will react.
“Reactions can be wide and in a variety of ways spark dialogue amongst students, personally and academically,” Colver said.
This play’s rugged nature is not for mere spectacle. It is instead a cleverly crafted way of engaging its witnesses.
“You can’t understand without seeing it. People will have visceral reactions and no one is going to fall asleep, that’s for sure,” Kang said.
In the past, Lee’s Korean ethnicity has sparked skepticism about “The Shipment’s” authenticity in tackling topics pertaining to African-Americans.
But not everyone is a skeptic.
“To focus on one racial group is to focus on race, to focus on racism,” said professor Jennifer Ho, who is mediating Lee’s lecture at 12:30 p.m. today at the Ackland Art Museum.
“She has a perspective to tell, not an authority on black experience, but she can draw on personal experience,” she said.
Harry Kaplowitz, marketing manager for Carolina Performing Arts, said as of Wednesday that 170 student tickets and 240 general public tickets had been sold.
He urged community members to make the trek to Memorial Hall this weekend to see the inspirational and stirring performance.
“Looking back on other seasons, this is going to be one of the most interesting and controversial performances we have put on,” Kaplowitz said.
Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.
